Earlier today I saw one of your parking Nazis give a green-lettered Federal Express truck on N. 3rd & New a $76 ticket during a two minute delivery. Green-letter Fed Ex trucks are driven by private contractors, they have to pay their own tickets — welcome to late period capitalism. The driver told me your parking Nazi knows this and this was the second ticket she gave him since this morning. He told me he makes $120 dollars a day. So not only did he make NOTHING today for humping packages in the summer swelter for eight hours, it […]
Search Results for: parking authority
HYPOCRISY THY NAME IS PPA: Parking Authority Goons Gotcha’d Parking In A NO PARKING ZONE
Posted two days ago to YouTube and highlighted by Joel Mathis on Philly Post this morning. PPA spokesperson Marty O’Rourke told Philly Post that this is all on the up and up. “That truck is a meter collection unit,” says O’Rourke. “They are not allowed to leave their vehicles, because they are full of money. They are allowed to park there and eat lunch.” PHAWKER: By this logic, it’s perfectly fine if the cops go around robbing and killing people and firemen start fires and force kittens up trees. Where does it end? FOR NOTHING: Thanks Philly Parking Authority!
QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: The Torch Of PPA Loathing Has Been Passed To A New Web Site
[Click image to activate Internets] PREVIOUSLY: “In this time of fiscal crisis, when they’re talking about laying off police officers, firefighters and closing libraries, we’ve got an agency that’s collecting cash faster than you can possibly imagine, and it’s not going to the places it’s supposed to fund,” Gym says. “Who do we need to look at it? Are we going to leave it up to people with titles and say, ‘Hey, they’re going to take care of it?’ Why do you think things stay the way they are?”
KAREN HELLER: Question The Parking Authority
INQUIRER: In November 2007, the governor asked for a comprehensive “fiscal and performance audit” of the agency, which directs $25 million in annual profits to the city and any surplus funds to the schools. “Accounts of skyrocketing expenses, bloated payrolls, excessive salaries, and parking-garage mismanagement suggest that the internal fiscal and management controls” were not in place, he wrote. This week, 20 months and $122,000 later, a near-final draft of the report appears that is neither comprehensive nor prescriptive. “Our procedures did not constitute an audit, review, or compilation of the information provided and, accordingly, we do not express an […]
HACK ATTACK: Cabbies Question Parking Authority
[Photo by PYROSARCO] THE SOURCE: Taxi drivers drove through Center City today in a horn-honking, traffic-slowing lunchtime protest. The United Taxi Workers Alliance said the action was called to demand “fair” parking ticket practices, a reduction in new fees and the return of funds allegedly withheld from drivers from credit card transactions. MORE DAILY NEWS: Chanting “The PPA are robbers!” and honking their horns, dozens of cabbies stopped their taxis on Market Street near 30th, blocking three lanes and snarling traffic about 11 a.m. Later, they gathered outside a PPA facility in Center City, shutting down whole blocks of 9th, […]
FOR NOTHING: Thanks Philly Parking Authority!
INQUIRER: The cause of the latest migraine for city tourism officials: Parking Wars, the gritty A&E series that traces the not-so-glamorous workday lives of Philadelphia Parking Authority employees as they boot, tow, and ticket their way through the day. “My family and I were going to visit Philadelphia, but after watching ‘Parking Wars,’ we have decided not to because of fear for losing our car!!!!” “After watching the series, I would NEVER visit your city. Beyond the obscene parking laws, the people in your city come off as rude, hard, cynical and unfriendly.” “I am thrilled to say I have […]
CONTEST: Question The Parking Authority
While the majority of the money the Philadelphia Parking Authority collects from parking tickets and fines goes directly to Harrisburg’s coffers, a set percentage is earmarked for the cash-strapped Philadelphia School District. However, according to reports in the Daily News and Inquirer, the PPA has not paid the school district a dime since 2004, and is in fact in arrears to the tune of $20 million to $45 million depending on who you ask. There is a word for organisms like the PPA that are all take and no give: Parasite. Dictionary.com defines ‘parasite’ as the following: par·a·site /?pær??sa?t/ Pronunciation […]
QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: Inky Finds PPA Worker Comp Claims Are Astonishingly High
INQUIRER: Battling fires and fighting crime is risky work, to be sure, but those jobs have nothing on writing parking tickets. Or so it would seem, if workers’ compensation claims are any indication. Over the last four years, employees at the Philadelphia Parking Authority have reported being hurt on the job more than twice as often as city firefighters or police officers. As a result, the Parking Authority spends far more on settling workplace-injury claims: $1,558 per employee, compared with the firefighters’ average of $1,084 and the Police Department figure of $833, according to an Inquirer analysis of city and […]
MAILBAG: Question The Parking Authority
DEAR PHAWKER, I just received a parking ticket from Philly [even thought I have] never been there. I live in Fayette County PA. The ticket I received [says that] I never replied to the first one so the fine nearly tripled. I took it to my local state rep. He said he is over run with bogus philly tickets and will do his best to help. After asking around, I have come across several people with the same complaint. [Seems] like Philly is being run by Boss Hog and Rosco. Rich From Pennsyltucky
WHY JOHNNY CAN’T READ: Amount Of Money The Philadelphia Parking Authority Has Generated For City Schools Since 2004…
Parents United, along with other parent groups, has been leading a call for the Parking Authority to keep its 2004 promise to turn over $20 million to the public schools. Since a first check for $4 million was handed over in 2004, the Parking Authority hasn’t sent a dollar to the public schools. MORE
QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: GOP Got Paid
INQUIRER: Though the Philadelphia Parking Authority has fallen short in its promised funding for city schools, it certainly has been a boon for the Philadelphia Republican Party. Authority employees and consultants have contributed at least $214,000 to the Republican City Committee since 2001, according to an Inquirer analysis of campaign finance data. The contributions this year have reached at least $33,210, or more than 14 percent of the party’s total. Those figures don’t include money that those same employees and contractors have given to top Republican ward leaders, who happen to run the Parking Authority. MORE
QUESTION EL PARKING AUTHORITY: PPA Goes CYA
DAILY NEWS: A week after the Daily News raised questions about the size of the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s auto fleet, the agency has asked 18 of its mid-level managers to give up the car keys. The Parking Authority issued a news release yesterday, saying that it expects to save $400,000 next year by limiting the number of managers permitted to take company cars home for the night, and by postponing the purchase of 18 new sedans and SUVs. The authority also projected $1 million in savings from a reduction of 10 management jobs through attrition and retirements.Last week, the Daily […]
QUESTION THE PARKING AUTHORITY: Guv Orders Audit Of ‘Skyrocketing Costs’ & ‘Excessive Salaries’
Gov. Rendell yesterday urged City Controller Alan Butkovitz to immediately begin a comprehensive audit of the Philadelphia Parking Authority. “Recent press accounts of skyrocketing expenses, bloated payrolls, excessive salaries, and parking-garage mismanagement suggest that the internal fiscal and management controls expected by Act 94 are not in place,” Rendell’s letter read, citing the law that gives the state-run agency the power to enforce Philadelphia’s parking regulations. Rendell asked the controller’s office to commence a “fiscal and performance audit” of the agency. Butkovitz said it appeared the governor was looking for a top-to-bottom review of the authority, which he called “an […]